The following relates to the instance retrieval arts, video identification arts, object tagging arts, and related arts.
Instance-level image retrieval refers to the process of detecting images that contain an instance of an object (for example, a person, a vehicle, or so forth) pictured in a reference image. As used herein, the object may in general be a visual depiction of a physical object, a person (or a person's face in a facial recognition context), a building, or other visualized entity of interest. In a computer-generated imagery (CGI) context, the object may be a computer-generated object. These are merely illustrative examples.
Instance retrieval finds application in numerous image processing devices and methods. For example, instance retrieval may be used in a security camera device to implement facial recognition, e.g. to locate images captured by the security camera that show a suspect pictured in a reference image. In a video surveillance camera device, instance-level retrieval may be used to identify image frames of a video stream that capture instances of a person, vehicle, or the like shown in a reference image, so as to determine when the person, vehicle, or so forth was seen by the video surveillance camera.